On the anniversary of Palestine’s political division, all fingers are being pointed at Hamas, by those writing for the first time as well as the veterans who know the ins and outs of the issue. The common ground for everyone is spreading lies under the pretext that Hamas is staging a coup against legitimacy. What legitimacy are they talking about?

Is it legitimacy represented by Mahmoud Abbas, who is in love with his “sacred” security coordination with the Israeli intelligence agencies? Or is it the legitimacy of the Palestinian people who live under occupation represented by resistance in all its forms?

Didn’t the late President Yasser Arafat seize legitimacy within the PLO by means of the gun? So who has rebelled against whom? Why are some people twisting the irrefutable historical facts to suit their own agendas?

Those who are in rebellion against the Palestinian revolution know full well that the Palestinians recognise Mahmoud Abbas as the one who staged a coup against the legislative elections months before polling began. He asked the previous Palestinian Legislative Council elected in 1996 to pass a law granting the president the right to dissolve the PLC; Abbas was anticipating the victory of Hamas in the 2006 elections. To their credit, the members of the PLC who had said “No” to Arafat refused to sell their votes to Abbas. “We will not grant you that right,” they told him, “even if Hamas wins.”

Within a year of the 2006 elections, Abbas took it upon himself to dissolve the PLC in a clear revolt against the wishes of the people. More recently he even revolted against Fatah, all the other factions and the whole of Palestine when he targeted the Jerusalem intifada and searched students’ backpacks looking for signs of any “excessive” loyalty to their country.

Now on the anniversary of the division, the hired guns are taking aim at Palestine in the name of defending Palestinian rights. They are twisting the image to make Abbas appear to be legitimate in his decisions, while the PLC looks as if it is staging a coup. Some mercenary writers have even swept away all of the Palestinian political rubbish under the “coup” carpet. This has made the “coup” a scapegoat for every political failure, disappointment and social and national deterioration, as if the political split is destroying the Palestinian cause on the verge of victory. The division is also blamed as the failure of the Oslo Accord, and dragging the Arabs down to the level of the 1967 defeat. Some even claimed that the division is the reason behind the Palestinian Nakba in 1948 and that Hamas has been planning the coup since the first Zionist conference, and is the reason why a state was not established. They have even claimed that Hamas has security coordination with Israel and protects its borders while encouraging settlement construction.

All of those who are revolting against history, facts and reality should know that I am not affiliated with Hamas and I will never be affiliated with Hamas. I have many reservations regarding the management of some institutions governed by Hamas, and I verify that the division has harmed the Palestinian cause. However, none of this stops me from reminding them that Oslo was a humiliating agreement that was signed before the division; that Israeli extremism and the state’s failure to commit to the withdrawal deadlines announced by Yitzhak Rabin occurred before the division; and that the Judaisation of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron occurred before the division on which they have blamed every one of their failures.

I challenge such people to say “the Israeli enemy” during any of their radio or television interviews, or write “the Israeli enemy” in any of their articles; that’s a measure of their affiliation. Anyone who does not dare to say “the Israeli enemy” does not have the right to speak on behalf of Palestine. The enemy is not only an occupation; the enemy is not just the other party; and the enemy is not our neighbour. Those who believe otherwise have revolted against the blood of the martyr Yasser Arafat and have betrayed their own responsibilities.